CIAO DATE: 04/05

Comparing Frameworks of Parliamentary Oversight: Poland, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine

Abstract

It is a truism that the nature and limits of parliamentary oversight in any state are determined by the constitutional and political structure unique to that state. That is to say, a state is constitutional and political framework of legislative oversight; ultimately constrains the extent to which its parliamentarians may regulate their defence establishment. In some countries, parliament has the legal wherewithal to exert a high degree of scrutiny and control over developments in the defence sector. In others, parliaments possess only limited legal prerogatives in this respect because the executive dominates the defence sector.

It does not follow, however, that the constitutional and political framework necessarily determines the actuality of parliamentary oversight. Quite often, as in the cases under review here, there is a considerable gap between the way things ought to work and the way that they actually do.

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